Lois DeBerry set a high bar for service in TN

Rep. Lois DeBerry of Memphis died on Sunday.

OUR VIEW

If Rep. Lois DeBerry had accomplished nothing else in her 40 years as a lawmaker, her work on prison reform alone would ensure her a place among Tennessee's great leaders.

Of course, the Memphis Democrat, who died on Sunday, was effective in many more ways. But in looking at the state's correctional system before and after she spoke up about how inmates were treated, the difference was as stark as a system that treated people as animals, but eventually became a system that worked with convicts to help them re-enter society.

Tennessee prisons were under court-ordered federal oversight in the late 1970s and early '80s. That they were shortly thereafter released from that order is in large part due to Rep. DeBerry's work.

Issues such as prison reform are seldom popular with the electorate, but it makes them no less important. Rep. DeBerry was able to separate what was right from what was expedient, and she did it year after year: urging parental involvement in public education and opposing credit-card companies that preyed on struggling college students.

And she did this as a member of an overwhelmingly male, Caucasian club: the General Assembly. She rose to the post of House speaker pro tempore, second only to the speaker, and did so nearly a quarter-century before Beth Harwell became the first woman to lead either house in Tennessee.

Few obituaries may mention Rep. DeBerry's misstep in 2005, when she accepted cash and gifts from an FBI agent posing as a businessman, but the story of what happened only serves to illuminate the fact that Rep. DeBerry was a dedicated public servant who was, still, only human.

The incident occurred while she was on a birthday trip to Tunica. The $200 cash was to play slots, the gifts worth less than that, and she said later that it was "a lapse in judgment," and was not accepted in return for her help with legislation. And in the 40 years in office, it was the only lapse.

Rep. DeBerry stepped down from a key legislative post at the time, but carried on her work as a lawmaker for Tennessee. In 2009, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent chemotherapy. No one would have blamed her if she had retired then, at age 64. Instead, she returned to work.

She became an advocate for other cancer victims and for pancreatic cancer research. The GOP-controlled House in 2011 gave her the honorary title of speaker emeritus. It demonstrated a great appreciation from a body that often struggles with bipartisanship.

It was a moving tribute to a woman who always put her heart and soul into helping the people of Tennessee. We will miss her.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Lois DeBerry set a high bar for service in TN

If Rep. Lois DeBerry had accomplished nothing else in her 40 years as a lawmaker, her work on prison reform alone would ensure her a place among Tennessee's great leaders.